See Also

Apple decided to take a risk when it priced the 7.9-inch iPad mini at $329.

Amazon and Google offer comparable tablets for $199. That means Apple is giving its rivals an opportunity to steal at least a little bit of the tablet market share.

The iPad mini isn't a state of the art product. It doesn't have a retina display. It doesn't have Apple's best chip, the A6X in it. Instead, it's an A5 chip. Basically, it's Apple's 2011 iPad 2, but in a smaller package.

Meanwhile, for $130 less, Amazon offers the Kindle Fire HD, which has a better screen. Google also offers a 16 GB 7-inch tablet for $250 which is comparable to the 16 GB iPad mini. The Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD have quad-core processors, versus the iPad mini, which has dual-core processors. In other words, the iPad mini is slower.

Sounds pretty bad for Apple, no? Don't over think it. Apple is still going to beat its rivals.

The big difference between Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle Fire is iOS, which is a much better operating system. Apple's operating system is years ahead of Amazon. It also has 275,000 iPad-ready apps.

And the big difference between the iPad mini and the Nexus 7 from Google is that it's easy to buy an iPad mini. Just walk into an Apple store, or go to Apple.com. Google's Play store sells the Nexus 7, but no one shops at Google's Play store. It's also available in some physical retailers, but it's Staples and GameStop, stores that aren't highly trafficked for tablets.

In addition to those reasons, Apple defines the tablet market. There's a saying the the tech world, people don't want tablets, they want iPads. And so, they're going to buy iPad minis.

There's other stuff, too. The iPad mini is lighter, thinner, and larger than its competitors.

For those reasons, Apple should easily outsell Amazon and Google, despite the higher price.